Sri Lanka - Articles

Venue

Rose Garden Golf resort, Nakorn Pathom, Thailand.

Date

6-9 January 2003.

Negotiating Teams

Government of Sri Lanka: Headed by Prof GL Peris, Minister for Constitutional Affairs and Peace. Other members Cabinet Ministers Milinda Moragoda and Rauf Hakeem, Peace Secretariat head, Bernard Gunatilleke, Defence Secretary Austin Fernando, Maj Gen Shantha Kottegoda.

LTTE: Led by Anton Balasingam, LTTE ideologue. Other members Adele Balasingham, Jay Maheswaran, V Rudrakumar, Batticaloa-Ampara military wing leader, “Col” V Karuna,  Political wing leader, SP Thamilselvan.

Facilitators

Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Vidar Helgesen, Special Envoy, Eric Solheim, and Norwegian ambassador to Sri Lanka Jon Westborg.

Outcome

General

• Reiteration of need for sustained dialogue on political matters on the foundations laid in the earlier rounds.

• The parties agreed to ask the facilitator to propose procedures to ensure rapid corrective actions by the parties in cases of incidents that are or can be perceived as disrupting the peace process.

Resettlement

• It was decided to establish a North East Reconstruction Fund and appoint the World Bank as its custodian for handling the foreign aid committed by various countries at the Sri Lanka Support Meeting held in Oslo on 25 November 2002 for rebuilding the war ravaged parts of the island.

• Both agreed on an urgent ‘Action Plan for an Accelerated Resettlement Programme for the Jaffna District’ to speed up the resettlement of around 250,000 displaced persons in the Jaffna peninsula in four phases:

1. The identification of available resources from appropriate funds by 20 January 2003.

2. A plan to release premises presently used by the Security Forces to the original owners or intended purposes, to be submitted by 31 January 2003.

3. A preliminary physical assessment of the resettlement areas by 7 February 2003.

4. The formulation of project recommendations and identification of potential implementing agencies by 14 February 2003.

• The Sub-Committee for Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs (SIHRN) would seek UNHCR’s participation in implementing the above plan. The needs of the displaced Muslim population would be accommodated in the resettlement process.

• The parties confirmed the SIHRN as the prime decision-making body for meeting the immediate humanitarian and rehabilitation needs of the north and east.

• It was decided to seek the assistance of former Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (Indian Army) Lt. Gen. (retd.) Satish Nambiar for re-structuring the sensitive areas in the High Security Zones (HSZs) in the north. HSZs were “specified military areas” (clause 1.11 of the Ceasefire Agreement signed on February 22, 2002) established to protect security forces, security installations, sensitive weapons and equipment in the north. Gen. Nambiar’s assignment is expected to start from early February.

Ceasefire Monitoring

To reinforce respect for these provisions of the Ceasefire Agreement, monthly meetings will be held between the GOSL, the LTTE and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to discuss the issues arising from the regular SLMM summary of recorded complaints and violations of the Ceasefire Agreement. Mr. Fernando (GOSL) and Mr. Karuna (LTTE) will be responsible for organizing these meetings and will report on progress made and outstanding problems at each session of the peace talks.

Gender Issues

As agreed in the earlier round, the terms of reference for the committee to ensure the effective inclusion of gender issues in the peace process will be formulated by the members at their first meeting. To be facilitated by a senior Norwegian resource person the committee will consist of the following five representatives of each party:

LTTE: Ms Sivahimi Subramaniyam, Ms Renuga Senmugaraja, Ms Mathimalar Balasingham, Ms Sridevy Sinnathampi, Ms Vasanthapireminy Samasundaram.

GOSL: Dr Kumari Jayawardena, Dr Deepika Udagama, Ms Kumuduni Samuel, Ms Faizoon Zakariya, Dr Fazeela Riyas.

Human Rights

A schedule on human rights issues to be worked out in the next round with assistance of an agreed advisor. An independent verification mechanism will be established for persons Missing in Action (MIA) and Involuntary disappearances, with the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Muslims

It was agreed that a Muslim delegation will be invited to the peace talks at an appropriate time for deliberations on relevant political issues

Road Ahead

The parties confirmed that subsequent sessions of the peace talks will take place on 7 - 10 February and 18 - 21 March 2003; additional sessions will be held on 29 April - 2 May, and an appropriate time in June to be determined once dates for the International Donor Conference in Japan are established.

Negative Development

The LTTE has walked out of the Sub-committee on De-escalation and Normalisation (SDN) until HSZs are vacated by the government forces to effect the resettlement of the displaced. This has resulted in sidelining the contentious issue of HSZs for the moment. Though it seems as if the Sri Lankan government was being conciliatory this was in fact, a tactical move to deny the Tigers an opportunity to walk away from the peace talks.

Previous Rounds

I  : 16-18 September 2002 at Sattahip Naval Base, Thailand

II : 31 October -3 November 2002 at Rose Garden resort in Nakorn Pathom, Thailand

III: 2-5 December 2002 Radisson Plaza Hotel, Oslo

Next Round

7-10 February 2003, Thailand (expected)